


save us, brother, from this wretched land

by Bendy_CA



Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Apocalypse, Canonical Character Death, Gen, Klaus Hargreeves-centric, Number Five | The Boy-centric, Post-Apocalypse, Protective Klaus Hargreeves, Sibling Bonding, Survival
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-01
Updated: 2020-04-01
Packaged: 2021-02-28 19:07:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23442190
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bendy_CA/pseuds/Bendy_CA
Summary: When Five jumped into the future and found his siblings dead, he was sure he was alone in this apocalypse.Klaus didn't expect a lot of things that happened that day. He didn't expect to be killed by his sister. He also didn't expect to be rejected by the afterlife, and really didn't expect to see his missing brother return.Maybe there's a reason they're in this together. They could save each other, keep their sanity, and attempt to stop this doom before it ever occured.
Relationships: Number Five | The Boy & Klaus Hargreeves, The Hargreeves Family
Comments: 22
Kudos: 181





	save us, brother, from this wretched land

**Author's Note:**

> I wanted to write a one-shot for Apocalypse Day, and of course, the idea grew into a bigger concept.  
> No beta, we die like Ben.

Five didn't believe it was Luther when he first saw that man, clutching that eye. His face looked so familiar. But it couldn't be his brother. It just couldn’t.  
  
The second man also looked like his brother, but it had to be a coincidence. He didn’t wake, and Five knew Diego wouldn’t have died like this. It was just a stranger, near another stranger. 

With the third person, he still didn’t believe it. Any woman could look like his sister, share her beauty mark. Besides, this woman's hair was dyed, so she wasn't his sister.  
  
Three adults, who looked so much like him like his brothers and sister. The newspaper said April 1, 2019. They looked like the right age. But these people couldn't be his siblings. He wouldn't believe it. 

Five tried to keep lying to himself. He tried and tried as he ran over to the fourth body. But when he saw that face, that outstretched arm, Five couldn’t deny it any longer.

The tattoo wouldn't let him deny it. It was a mark that only members of the Umbrella Academy had. It was on a person who looked too familiar. Five stumbled back, in shock.

These strangers were fours of his siblings. Luther, Diego, Allison, and Klaus. All grown up, and all dead.  
  
He looked down at the glass eye in his hands.  
  
Luther had torn it out of the socket. That meant there was a fight. A brutal one if his brother were to do something like that.  
  
Five began piecing it together.  
  
His four of his siblings scattered around the area. Eighty percent of the Umbrella Academy. Together.  
  
(No Ben still. Where was he? Had he been with Vanya? Was he able to protect her?)   
  
The Umbrella Academy were fighting with a one-eyed person. They failed.  
  
The owner of the eyeball started this destruction, the Umbrella Academy came together to save the city. They failed, and the city and everything in it was destroyed.  
  
His siblings were together. They were fighting together. And now they're dead. This person _killed_ them.  
  
For Five, only hours ago, they were thirteen, eating dinner. Five was so angry he doesn't even remember what his siblings were doing at the table. Dad wouldn't listen to him, wouldn't trust him. Five was sick of it. He just wanted to get away from Dad. 

(He should have listened to him. He should have listened.)  
  
He just wanted out of the Academy. He wouldn't deal with Diego's childish pranks, he would never have to hear one of Klaus's stupid joke again. Allison would never rumor him, and Luther would never boss him around again. He got what he wanted. And his family was dead. Everyone he's ever loved was dead.  
  
He broke down into tears, collapsing to the ground. He laid in a fetal position, hugging his knees, and cried and cried. He never did this before, even when he was young. He would be embarrassed at himself for doing this, but he's completely alone. The city was destroyed, and now his family was dead. They tried to stop this and now they're dead.  
  
He hoped the destruction was limited to the city. He hoped he could travel and find people, and discover the rest of the world was fine. But the destruction seemed never-ending. And there was no sign of anyone coming to help him.  
  
His family had dealt with villains and destruction bigger than the city. And if the Umbrella Academy couldn't stop this… there was a chance this destruction reached far beyond the city limits.

He cried harder and thought of the rest of his family. A newspaper he found said Dad died over a week ago. He didn't know how he felt about that. Since the Academy was destroyed, Pogo and Mom were also gone.

He couldn't stop himself from thinking about Ben and Vanya. Why weren't they here? Vanya, he understood, but Ben? Ben must be near here, maybe under the collapsed buildings and rubble. Ben would never abandon a fight, doing anything he could to help others. He had to be dead too. Five wanted to believe Vanya was okay, wherever she was. That maybe she was away and safe. But, something told him Vanya was dead too.

 _Maybe Ben and Vanya were charred corpses you saw,_ a horrible voice in his head said, making his stomach churn. That idea made Five cry hard, but he didn't seem to have tears left, so his cries had turned to wails. He sounded so pathetic.  
  
He was supposed to be here. He was supposed to be fighting with them. Five wasn't there to help them, and now they're dead and he wasn't.  
  
"I'm sorry," he called out to the dead, "I'm sorry."  
  
He heard no answer and longed for Klaus' power. He clutched the eye in his hand. His breathing was shallow and shaky.  
  
He calmed down, eventually. He sat up and wiped his face on his sleeve, the tears and dirt staining it. He studied the eye again.  
  
Five shouldn't have wasted his time crying, he should have conserved his energy. But it didn't matter now, what mattered was what he needs to do. He needed to try to go back again. He had to go over everything. He would think it through, try time-traveling again, and find whoever did this, stop them, and save his family.

His mind was racing over everything when something moved.

Five looked toward the movement. He could've sworn it came from Klaus' body. His fingers had twitched, as did Five's heart. Logically, it had to be rigor mortis, but he stepped closer to his brother's body.

There was a chance Five might not be alone. If he gave himself hope, the disappointment of checking a pulse could be so much worse.

Five stared, unmoving. At that moment, Klaus was Schrödinger's cat, and Five was afraid of opening the box.

The light returned to Klaus' eyes, and Five couldn't move, couldn't breathe, couldn't think as he watched his brother shift in the rubble.

Klaus was _alive_ , staring at him.  
  
“Hey," Klaus said. “Took you long enough to start haunting my ass.”

Five collapsed into his brother's arms, and didn't let go for a long, long time.

~~~

_Klaus died and there was nothing._

_Then he woke up._

_He stood up, sighed, and stretched a bit. He looked around the area, a field with a dirt path, and everything was monochrome. Klaus wasn't quite sure what was happening. Seconds ago, Vanya attacked their family. That guy was with her, laughing, trying to get her to kill them. She used her powers (her powers?!) and made a building fall on them, and Klaus hit his head too hard._

_He noticed a kid on a bike, riding up the path._

_“Oh, Yoohoo!” Klaus called, waving a hand. He walked over to her, and she stopped in front of him. “Hello.”_

_She stared up at him, indifferent._

_“Almost didn’t see you,” she told him. “You blend right in around here. So pale and all.”_

_Klaus hummed at that comment. An odd thing to say, but the kid wasn't wrong. “They don’t have any sun down there?”_

_“Down there?” he echoed. “Where am I?”_

_“Where do you think?”_

_He honestly didn’t know. Definitely not heaven. Not Hell, if the world was "down there." Purgatory, maybe? Where would one find themself after they died? Probably not talking to a kid wearing a sunhat, riding their bicycle, but here he was._

_“I’m not sure,” Klaus said, “I’m agnostic, so-”_

_She cut him off, “Doesn’t really matter. You can’t stay here.”_

_“Why not?” he asked. “Everything was destroyed.”_

_It was everything, wasn't it?_

_“Not everything. Just something,” she explained, and Klaus was even more confused. She studied him for a long time, before she stated, "You were supposed to stay, but I’ve changed my mind.”_

_“Changed your mind?”_

_“To be blunt, I don’t really like you all that much.”_

_“Yeah, me neither,_ _” he agreed. He shook himself out that quick, when he realized, “But wait a minute. Aren’t you supposed to love all of us?"_

_“Where did you get that idea?” she scoffed. “I need you so I can pick and choose. And you don’t rub me the right way.”_

_“Wait,” he said, bending down to her level, “so you… you made us? You made me?”_

_That could answer so many questions, but it also raised so many more._

_“Well, I made everything else, so I must’ve made you.”_

_So, she created everything. That meant he was talking to God, right? Klaus was talking to God herself, who looked like a thirteen-year-old girl and had been riding her bike in the countryside. Klaus couldn't help but laugh. She just kept staring at him, unamused._

_“Why? Do you have another idea?”_

_“Maybe,” he shrugged. “A couple. I dunno.”_

_Klaus had thought of his birth, his existence, his power and purpose, quite a few times. He usually numbed himself before he could really contemplate anything._

_“Well, then, keep them to yourself,” she said. “You can go now.”_

_“But I just got here!” he argued. Klaus needed answers, something, anything before she put him back. “What about my brothers and sisters? Are they here?”_

_“Goodbye, Number Four.” And suddenly she was gone._

_“Wait! Come back!” he yelled, searching all around for her, “HEY! WAIT! At least tell me about Vany-”_

_He's knocked out again before he can finish._

...

_There's nothing again._

...

_Somewhere between it all, he thought he heard crying._

_..._

_There's an apology somewhere between the sobs. Was it Vanya? He moved his hand, trying to reach out for her, but there was still nothing._

...

He awoke with his eyes opened and Klaus was back where he started.

Ben is still there. Standing in front of him, was little Number Five.

Finally.

Klaus had waited nearly seventeen years for this day. The day he would accidentally conjure Number Five, and for the rest of his life, be followed by _two_ of his brothers, sober or not. Two to make him feel guilty for existing, for being alive instead of them. 

Five hadn't changed much since he left. He was still thirteen. Still young. He was still in his uniform. His clothes were roughed up, his tie was missing, and his face was dirty. He probably died the day he left. Like Ben, his wounds were not visible. Klaus was thankful for that.

Klaus hadn't planned on what he would say. He was so afraid of this day. What does one say to their dead brother? He doesn't remember what he said when Ben appeared. Was it 'I love you'? Maybe 'Hey, I've missed you'? Or did he apologize for being alive?

He shifted in the rubble pile, moving into a better position on his back. 

Klaus decided to lighten the tension. The poor kid was probably terrified, and humor always helped more than emotions.

“Hey,” Klaus said, giving Five a shit-eating grin. “Took you long enough to start haunting my ass.”

Five tackled him. His brother's arms were wrapped tight around his neck, and Klaus gently patted his back, absentmindedly. Klaus suddenly realized that... he was touching Five. Five was touching him.

Five was _alive_. And hugging him.

Thirteen-year-old Five, who had been missing for sixteen years, without a trace, was here. Completely corporeal. He was breathing heavily, and his body was shaking. The brother that Klaus assumed was dead, was actually alive. Not a ghost or hallucination or a memory, but here and real.

He hadn't aged a day.

Klaus hugged him back, tight.

Five was here and thirteen years old. And Klaus was holding him. Klaus could barely process it. Today was so messed up, so out of control. And he hadn't expected it to get any weirder, yet it had. And of everything he had gone through, this is what was making him spiral.

Ben, standing over them, exchanged a bewildered look with Klaus.

“Number Five,” he finally let out, “you're alive?”

**Author's Note:**

> Is it cheating if I used that scene from the show? I don't know anymore.  
> Hopefully, I'll actually finish this, someday.


End file.
